One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating.
~Luciano Pavarotti and William Wright, Pavarotti, My Own Story

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

Healthy food is generally perceived as bland and boring. However, a cookery show where Sanjeev Kapoor was featuring a zero-oil recipe - roasted pepper prawns, caught our attention last week.It seemed so easy to make and looked so good that we tried it out later that week. Paired with pasta, it turned out to be a simple, healthy and fulfilling meal - one that can be cooked when you are pressed for time.

Boil the broccoli florets and carrots with very little water in a pressure cooker. Five minutes is enough or else the veggies will end up overcooked and soggy.Mix the tomato ketchup, ginger garlic paste, mustard paste, cooked carrot and broccoli, prawns, salt and ground black pepper. You can add a little more tomato ketchup if the mixture seems too dry. However, go easy on the mustard paste, since it has an overpowering flavour that can mask the taste of the other ingredients.Heat a cooking pan and roast the chopped garlic- no oil, remember?- for a minute. Now add the mixture prepared earlier and cook on medium flame for around 8 minutes. Garnish with fresh, torn (this brings out the flavour) basil leaves. Dried basil available in most stores can also be used instead. Add some lemon juice if desired. Serve with pasta cooked as mentioned below.

Roasted Pepper Prawns

Ingredients for Pasta with Arrabiata sauce:Spaghetti - just enough for 2 (this is usually half of the normal packet size that is available in stores)Arrabiata Sauce - 3 tbspsExtra virgin olive oil - 1 tbspsDried basil - 1/2 tspDried oregano - 1/2 tspSalt to tasteCook the pasta as per instructions on the pack. Remember not to overcook it; it should be al dente. Make sure you add a couple of drops of olive oil to the boiling water so that the pasta does not turn out sticky. Once cooked, drain and keep aside some of the pasta starch.Heat the remaining olive oil in a pan. Add the arrabiata sauce and cook on medium heat for a minute. Add 4 tbsps of the pasta starch and cook for another minute. Now add the cooked pasta and dried basil and oregano. Toss till the sauce and pasta get mixed well. Serve hot.

Pasta with arrabiata sauce

The whole meal took about 30 minutes to make but the end result looks like a lot of time has been spent on it - truly gourmet ;). All the items for the recipes are easily available at departmental stores. Jumbo sized or atleast medium sized prawns would be ideal for the roasted pepper prawns though we used small prawns. The recipes given above serve two.

Did you know.............................that the arrabiata sauce is called the angry sauce? The word arrabiata is Italian for "in an angry mood", which describes perfectly the spicy, zingy flavor of a good arrabiata sauce. ......................that "spaghetti" is the plural form of the Italian word "spaghetto", which is a diminutive of "spago," meaning "thin string" or "twine"? The word "spaghetti" can be literally translated as "little strings."

About Me

Nidhi loves music, books, quizzing, crafts, movies, 'Friends'....and detests cooking(!) Balaji loves jazz, AR Rahman, movies, 'Seinfeld', photography and also has a lorry named after him. Both love to try new places to eat out and experience different cuisines. They share their gastronomic adventures in this blog with Nidhi as the narrator while Balaji goes point-zoom-click with his Canon.